At this present moment, this opinion from Alastair Cooke on the Conservatives'( UK) website seems slightly premature:
David Cameron has now begun the task of creating for the first time a Conservative and Unionist Party in Northern Ireland with the heirs of the Ulster Unionist Council, now committed to power-sharing, as full members of it. The outcome of this immensely important initiative will have profound consequences not just for Northern Ireland but for the United Kingdom as a whole.
For once, the Stalinist, Top-Down, "Control of the Message", "Plebs stand in line and do what your Dear Leader tells you" mode of party management, first perfected by New Labour and later imitated by both the DUP and Sinn Fein locally, appears almost attractive.
5 comments:
I see what he's getting at; the "full power-sharing" bit could be misinterpreted, I imagine.
Tim
Some of the stuff going on on various blogs (some new, some not so new) is desperately undignified and unhelpful. I can only hope that it is completely unreflective of the parties' higher echelons.
Unfortunatly Chekov it looks like the higher echelons is where the problem is emminating from, resulting in mixed messages and finger pointing. Once that goes into the public domain it will inevitably draw comment.
I can only hope that it is completely unreflective of the parties' higher echelons
It won't be the party's upper echelons who'll be fighting the campaigns on the ground and to someone, admitedly a bit remote from the coalface, it really doesn't smell good at the minute.
"Unfortunatly Chekov it looks like the higher echelons is where the problem is emminating from, resulting in mixed messages and finger pointing. Once that goes into the public domain it will inevitably draw comment."
Obviously a few people's noses have been put out of joint and there are things to be ironed out. However the vituperative brand of mud slinging which I've been reading is very unhelpful. Deep breaths needed all round.
There are some people on either side, who whilst they claim they are for the deal, have shown nothing but resentment at every change they're being required to make. I wonder whether the will to make this work is there at all.
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